News
 

• Disney’s new Dreams that Soar drone show appears to be doing well. Summerhouse on the Lake has started offering a guaranteed seating reservation for the show, for $25 per person.
• Over in Frontierland, it looks like Disney’s getting ready for the Big Thunder Mountain refurb for later this year. Disney’s filed a construction permit that runs through August 8, 2025. And while Disney hasn’t said yet when the refurb will begin, word around the mine entrance is that it might start this September.

• Also, it looks like the Frontierland Trading Post is getting some exterior work: construction walls are up over there now.
• Jim, if Tiana’s is still having technical issues later this summer, would that affect the Big Thunder re-do? And does that factor at all into work for Beyond Big Thunder?
  

• Universal provided new concept art and details for Epic Universe’s Dark Universe land.

Curse of the Werewolf (family-friendly, spinning roller coaster)

A mysterious figure tells you that you bear the curse of the werewolf

You’re put on a wagon and sent into the woods…while a full moon appears

Monsters Unleashed - The Frankenstein Experiment

The great-great granddaughter of Victor Frankenstein - Victoria Frankenstein - has continued his experiments and has developed in her laboratory the ability to control monsters … or so she thinks.

Land features a burning windmill, as burning windmills are kind of a staple in horror movies.

The windmill is a bar called The Burning Blade Tavern, and it’s where the monster hunters hang out.

Also a quick-service called De Lacey’s Cottage, De Lacey’s Cottage – Where the original Frankenstein’s Monster once ate. Here, guests can find a variety of snacks and cool treats like cinnamon bread, ice cream, twisted taters and more.

Darkmoor Monster Makeup Experience 

• Options include Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Cure’s Robert Smith 1981 tour look.
  
  

The Das Steakhaus restaurant is run by vampires’ familiars, who are looking for potential victims

You know they’re already writing the ‘steaks’ jokes

Meet & Greet

Jim, this all looks fabulous, and I want to get your thoughts on it.

How’s Universal going to thread the needle here on “scary” versus “family-friendly”? Because some of these monsters are canonically scary.

Let’s say this opens in mid-2025 and is a smash. Does that affect Disney’s plans for a “villains” land in Beyond Big Thunder? Like, does Disney want to risk a “me too!” look there?

Surveys

From Jeff, a new set of survey questions about MyDisneyExperience:

Len says: These are the kinds of questions that you’d ask if you thought you might need to re-do the app.

And all kidding aside, the people who design the MDE interfaces have one of the most difficult jobs in the company. Because the app is supposed to satisfy a basket of critical business needs, some of which conflict with each other:

• It has to provide clear information relevant to guests in a fast, efficient way
• But also put upselling offers front-and-center
• It has to be simple to navigate on small screens
• But you have to explain to new guests “here are the things you don’t know that you don’t know”

• For example, a new guest has no idea what a virtual queue, an individual lighting lane, or a Genie+ is. So your app navigation has to make it easy for people who know what those things are, to get them done fast. And the app navigation should, ideally, also indicate “Hey, I’m talking about ride reservation systems, which you might find useful, and here’s how they work in Orlando”

Listener Emails

From Gordon, on the question of whether a “mountain” is “authentic” to Louisiana in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure:

Can we just suspend disbelief, become a kid again, and say it’s not a mountain, it’s an entrance to a magical place to Tiana's new restaurant.  We do it in every other attraction.

Len says: It’s a straightforward comment from Gordon, and I mention it because it’s one of the things I have to constantly remind myself when I review a ride: How would someone brand new to this experience think about it? I know it’s not always that simple - any time Disney puts an IP into the parks, you have to think about how the ride fits in the canon.

From Andrew:

With Beyond Big Thunder happening, do you think Disney will look at updating the TTC as it adds capacity to Magic Kingdom ? Also, do you ever think Disney will ever get rid of the ticket booths since so many people buy online? I know there will always be walk ups who buy tickets, but I don’t know if that amount of real estate is worth keeping it?

From Marsha:

I love that you referenced the Rat Race from the Carousel of Progress in your June 3 episode. That’s my mom’s favorite attraction. In the 90’s it was in some disrepair, but we always rode it with her. Once we were stuck in the 1940/1950’s scene for 3 rotations. When John mentions this new concept called the Rat Race someone in the audience yelled “the what?!” It is forever our favorite Disney quote. Keep up the good work!

Len: Jim, I’m just saying that Marsha’s about halfway to embracing my Halloween overlay concept for “Rocky Horror Progress Carousel”, in which we dress up like the characters and turn this whole thing into a camp musical.

From Megan,

I really enjoyed your coverage of the mini golf and golf history at Disney. One thing I didn’t hear mentioned at all though that I think is really unique is the 18 hole putting green at the Palm and Magnolia course that is basically a mini golf course you can do for free.

You have to have your own putter and balls but they have the large green tees. We’re a golfing family we love this free Disney activity! I included some pictures from today for those that haven’t seen it.

Len says: You know, I should’ve remembered this, because our friend Scott Sanders, who runs DisneyCruiselineBlog.com, loves these courses and I’m pretty sure breaks even on his AP just using these.

Research/Patents (use query "disney enterprises".as AND "theme park".ab)

Fireworks at Disneyland – Final Installment

Okay. On the last episode of “Disney Unpacked,” we were talking about how Disneyland took its fireworks program – which had been handled by California Fireworks, a contractee, since the Park first began presenting pyrotechnic displays as part of its “Date Nite at Disneyland” promotion back in June of 1957 …

 Anyway … Disneyland took its fireworks program in-house in the Late Winter / Early Spring of 1976, just ahead of America’s bicentennial … That still amazes me. For 19 years, Disneyland’s fireworks displays are done by contractees.

Anywho … Disneyland hires Harold “Mickey” Aronson away from California Fireworks and puts him in charge of the Park’s fireworks displays at a real interesting time. Which is when – on the heels of the National Clean Air Act of 1970 – California is prepping its own environmental legislation that is looking to seriously limit the amount of particulate material that it will allow to be falling out of the sky in the wake of a pyrotechnic display.

So Aronson – seeing the threat that’s headed Disneyland’s way – starts by modernizing the way Disney presents its fireworks displays at the Parks. First things first, he invents Mickey’s Match. Which fundamentally changes the way Disneyland’s fireworks displays are launched. The days of lighting fuses with a railroad flare or by using a 12-volt battery & a nail are now over. In their place is a new computer-controlled system which then made use of digital firing technology.

Upside of this digital firing technology is that Disney’s fireworks shows now start getting a lot tighter and more professional looking. Instead of the pyro team listening to the music for “Fantasy in the Sky” and then trying to light each shell at just the right moment so that it would then explode overhead in time to the beat of the music … Mickey’s Match with its new computer-controlled launch system would actually allow Mickey & his pyrotechnicians to back-time each launch.

And when I say “back-time,” what I mean is … Factoring in how high a particular shell would first need to fly before exploding at a specific moment in the show and then launching that firework ahead of time. So that it would then actually explode in time to meet a specific musical beat in the show’s soundtrack.

All of this is a lot harder than it looks: The set-up for a nightly fireworks display at Disneyland typically involve an eight hour-long work day. 7-person crew first has to go to the bunker and collect all of the product (i.e., firework shells) needed for that night’s show. These days, that’s typically a thousand pieces of product per show.

Following establishing procedures when it comes to the safe loading & transportation of this big a pile of explosives, the product is then taken to 12 different locations around the Park and then hand-loaded in each of those launch tubes. Launch locations include Sleeping Beauty Castle, rooftops of various attractions behind the Castle in Fantasyland, and then back-of-house for bigger pieces.

All has to come together in the sky over Sleeping Beauty Castle. This has been the focal point of Disneyland’s fireworks show since back in Walt’s day. Won’t be changing anytime soon.

Making sure that Guests are able to see that view often involves some tough sacrifices. The Hub used to have these beautiful full-sized trees. Had been lovingly tended to & trimmed by the Park’s horticultural department. In the 1990s, it was noticed that these trees were now blocking the Guests view of these fireworks displays. Out came the chainsaws.

Tony Baxter was able to save a few of these. Had them transported from Anaheim to his backyard. Where they stand still today.

Back to fireworks displays at Disneyland and the fall-out in the neighborhood next to the Park … The Mouse buys a crazy amount of pyro purchase. Summer after Bicentennial (1977), Disney used 20,135 shells in just three months time to present “Fantasy in the Sky.”

As a direct result of all these regularly scheduled fireworks shows (First in just California & Florida. Later on in Japan, France, Hong Kong & Shanghai), The Walt Disney Company is now the world’s largest consumer of pyrotechnics.

Side note: Only the U.S. Department of Defense buys more explosives on an annual basis than Disney does. But their explosives go into bombs, not fireworks shells.

But it was that black power igniter – that thing which shoots the actual firework shell into the air / reaching the precise height that it needs to explode at – which most concerned Mickey Aronson. It was that combustible material – to be specific, the potassium chloride that was created when potassium perchlorate oxidizes – that then created the toxic metals that were continually raining down on that housing development right behind Disneyland.

Which is when Mickey began thinking. Would it perhaps be possible to create a way to launch fireworks that wouldn’t then leave a chemical signature of toxic metals behind.

It took a while for Disney to find just the right partner to take on this project. Which turned out to be the National Laboratory at Los Alamos. Insert your own “Oppenheimer” joke here.

But it was with the help of these folks that Mickey & his pyro team then came up with a smokeless launch system. One that would use compressed air to hurl fireworks shells high in the sky. Which then eliminated the need to use black powder to launch these shells. Which then removed a lot of the chemical residue & physical fall-out (We’re talking the paper wrappings for the black powder portion of these firework shell) from the equation.

Began testing this system in 2003. Successfully enough that Disney actually patented this compressed air launch system the following year (2004).

Downside was … The black powder portion of the previous versions of the fireworks shell that Disneyland used to use? … Well, they didn’t just power that firework up to the right height in the sky that it could then explode at. It was actually the burning black powder – as it hurled that rocket up into the sky – that then caused the colorful center-most portion of that very same shell to explode. Which is what then made that firework explode overhead with a burst of color.

And with all that black powder removed, Disney then had to invent another device that then told this firework shell (when it reached just the right height) that it was now time to explode.

Disney was able to invent a computer chip that could then be inserted in the core of each fireworks shell that could then replace black powder’s secondary function. In essence telling each piece of pyro that it had reached the right height. So it was now time for your colorful core to explode. But as you might expect, these computer chips were expensive to first design & then manufacture.

So we now reach the dirty little secret that’s right at the center of the rise of projection mapping shows at the Disney theme parks. Likewise the recent proliferation of drone shows at the Parks.

It’s not just that Disney has some fun new tools that it can now use when it stages nighttime shows in the sky. But – rather – projection mapping shows & drones (to be specific, the technology that you use to stage such shows) is reusable. It’s equipment that you can invest in and then still be using years later.

Whereas a fireworks shell (especially these new air launched ones with a computer chip inside) are a one-and-done. They’re also (as I just mentioned) expensive to make. Which is why – over the dozen years or so – we’ve seen Disney very deliberately cutting back on the amount of pyro that it uses in its nighttime shows. Not just because it’s the environmentally friendly thing to do. But because – long term – using projection mapping or enlisting the use of drones to help present these shows on a nightly basis is more cost effective.

And that’s something that genuinely has to be considered. Especially given the number of fireworks displays that Disney presents at its theme parks on an annual basis.

Worth noting here: Back when “Date Nite at Disneyland” got started at the Parks in 1957, fireworks were presented in the skies over Disneyland a total of 62 times that year.

Jump ahead 50 years (2007), and Disneyland Park – along with its new next door neighbor, California Adventure – is presented fireworks displays 239 times a year. Almost four times as many.

Which is a lot to ask of the people who live on the other side of Walnut Street. I mean, there’s a lot fewer chemical & paper wrappers falling out of the skies these days. But there’s still all that noise virtually every night at 9.

FYI: 9:30 during the Summer months. 9 p.m. during the cooler parts of the year.

Disney still pays for sound-proofing when asked. And – relatively recently – they’ve begun to offer compensation to people whose pets have been exhibiting behavioral problems that seem to be linked to constant exposure to all that noise.

Long story short: Fireworks at the Parks aren’t going anywhere. But we’re definitely in an era of transition. Where we’re moving from pyro overhead being the whole show to fireworks displays – both high up in the sky as well as blasting right off of rooftops (sparkler-like displays) – being just one element of nighttime shows at the Parks.

Not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you live over behind Walnut Street in Anaheim. But it is different.

One final note: This story started in a quiet corner of the Disneyland parking lot. These days, the park’s fireworks displays – which are handled by Disneyland’s Live Entertainment – are launched out of a backstage control room. A bank of 24 video screens shows each of the Park’s 12 launch points from various angles. All 333 air launch tubes.